New property

So Last week we closed on our new property. ~4.6 acers (theres a section of no-mans-land that the driveway sits on that we have to "aquire")

The property came with a nice 32x60 pole barn, and a run down non-liveable house. (which will eventually get donated to the local volinteer fire dept)

anyway for the last couple of weeks the big push has been to get the bathroom useable.

My wife works in the town about 5 min away so theres a big push to get the shower working so we can stay from fri after work - monday morning and leave right to work. (we still have our "real house" in St Louis).

enough with the bable... to the pics they say...

hears what we started with for a bath.

some $300 later and 3 solid days work we get this.

the pink wall will get a new coat of white, and the bathroom needs a door, a drywall patch on the celing (well, not exacty a "patch" its just missing the drywall for a good 3x6' chunk)

IT got new "lick-n-stick" floor and electric water heater because the old one was gas (LP) and will be tapping the high pressure natural gas pipeline that runs across the front yard (but not for months).

So we call it the "shower house" think permant camping .... (till we get the barn-apt built) The kitchen doesnt need much work, clean up the old farm sink, bring an extra refer from the house, an extra microwave.

We cook at "camp" on the propain stoves, do dishes in the house. Food is a combination storage between the house and camper (camper fridge).
Dont think we are "roughin" it at my camp. This is how we do breakfast.
(with some bacon and eggs)

hear is "camp"
with power we are chillin in A/C . But that still doesnt help the "damp" camp feeling.

oh and ya the tractor

Hear we are filling in a low spot. (black IL dirt digs right up)

Late sunday (before dinner) i ran out to the front of the property were there are a couple of huge oaks, one of which lost a couple of limbs in the huge storms that rolled through about a month ago. Hears whats left after the neighbor cut up the limb and helped himself (before it was my property)

This comming weekend (labor day) will be a long weekend at the property. Plans include mostly outside work, lots of brush to clean up, saplings to pull out etc.

Re: New property

Schmism,
Nice place ! We were in a similar position about a year and a half ago. Heck... your house doesn't look so bad !! I'm plenty jealous of your barn though. I've been trying to convince Whats-Her-Name into looking for another fixer-upper in a couple more years, so it will effectively cut the cost of all the tools and equipment i had to buy in half. Shes not biting (and i don't completely blame her). Everyone thought we were WAAAAAAAY over our heads.... they were wrong. We were only WAY over our heads. Luckily, i'm not very good at idling, and i'm gonna guess you aren't either !

Re: New property

Ya based on the outside it doesnt look "that bad"

but when you go inside you quickly figure out its not worth saveing.

the floors are shot. meaning support is gone, couple of places the only think keeping you standing there is the 4 layers of carpet and plywood subfloor, but the whole thing moves up and down like 4".....

the back part of the house (addtion) has a crawl space, foundation out of cinder block which is bow'd in....

and the second floor celing height is like 6.5' tops

so take it all in... bad floors, no/bad foundation, not enough height.... its just not worth saveing.

Plus the people that sold it understood that so we got it for a price that you woud have paid for just the land .... pole barn was an "extra"

as a upshot, it has a brand new 200 amp sqrD pannel that will be moved, a "modern" 30 amp 220v supply to the barn so ive got good power thoughout the property.

Re: New property

That is what I love the most...the rain pounding down and you are warm...in your safe tent or trailer. Must be some primordial feeling of safety or something. We can sit for hours in wonderment just listening to the rain...and usually have to 'cause there's not much else to do. My lab has her nose in the ground all the time too. Voles, moles and field mice mostly.